Last night, I watched the first Republican Debate and the last Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I enjoyed one more than the other.
The "debate" — I think that's the wrong term for that format; joint press conference is more like it — was about what I expected. Today, websites are filled with fact-checking which shows that a lot of untrue things were said. The most annoying thing about the event may be that that doesn't matter; that when we speak of who won and who lost and who helped their campaign, no one loses significant points either for lying or not knowing what's going on in the world. Swagger seems to matter more. Even people whose main complaint about Obama is that they think every single thing he says is a lie don't care much when their guy fails to connect with the truth as long as he seems passionate and outspoken.
I find it hard to imagine any of those ten men inspiring voters for any reason other than they have an "R" after their names on the ballot. A lot of them looked like they'll say anything to get elected. Scott Walker is sure he could get our allies to reimpose sanctions on Iran? No, he can't.
Mike Huckabee complains about Obama unconstitutionally using executive power to accomplish goals but pledges he himself will use executive power to overrule the Supreme Court. Does anyone buy that? And, uh, what happens when the Supreme Court says he can't do that? We'll never know because he's never going to be president.
Trump was Trump. The people who love his "unfiltered" remarks got enough of them to love. I still think his lead is like the similar lead Rudy Giuliani had at this point in the 2008 election. In Trump's case, I get the feeling he'll be in it as long as he can sell himself as the leader and that he'll find some lame excuse to bow out once he starts not being in first place in some primaries. Fox News seems to be trying to sell him today as the Big Loser last night. I don't think he was but he did demonstrate that he doesn't have (or perhaps isn't interested in) real answers to policy questions. And he probably did lose a bit of ground with women voters.
The rest? Ben Carson looked like he'd been prescribing recreational drugs for himself. John Kasich probably helped himself in that no one knew who he was before the debate and now some do. I was impressed with Marco Rubio up to the point where he got more extreme over abortion than most "pro-life" voters and even his own past positions. Ted Cruz has outrage to offer and not much else. Rand Paul looked like a guy who hasn't gotten the memo that his campaign is over.
Chris Christie actually had some decent moments, I thought, but it's too little, too late. The guy needs to cut himself away from the herd somehow and he missed an opportunity to do it. He isn't going to win sounding like everyone else. Come to think of it, he isn't going to win no matter what he does.
If I had to bet on which one of those people is going to be the nominee, I'd pick Jeb Bush but he sure didn't distinguish himself. When he's complaining about Obama abandoning Iraq, someone needs to ask him about his brother's Status of Forces agreement that pledged the U.S. would get the hell out of Iraq. (Fred Kaplan has a fact-check on many of the foreign policy statements and while we're at it, Politifact is comparing other claims to the record.)
I would guess that this morning most Republicans are about as unenthused about their potential nominees as I am about Hillary Clinton. Last night when the Oval Office seekers were all asked if God wanted them to run, I could only think about that joke: If God wanted us to vote, He would have given us candidates.